Author: RS 3rd-Year Team B

Pouring at Rosie’s Home

May 9, 2022

The Spring semester is complete! During their last few weeks in Newbern, the 3rd-year class completed projects for the Woodshop class, visited the final house for History class, worked on the foundations and walls of Rosie’s Home, and prepared for the Pig Roast presentations. Scroll down to see these final products and more!

Finishing Up the Chairs

Each of the teams spent time on their chair’s assembly and sanding, all complete with finishing oils to make them really shine. In the final review, we discussed what we liked about our chair, what could be improved, and what we learned over the course of the semester.

Forkland, AL

Our final fieldtrip let us to Thornhill mansion in Forkland, Alabama. The amazing views, tasteful modern additions, and lovely adjacent schoolhouse made for a great afternoon with an abundance of learning.

The Foundation of Our Learning

With gravel in place, we began the next step of preparing for the foundation by digging the slab’s turndowns and constructing the formwork. Next, we backfilled the formwork using the dirt from the turndowns and installed the rebar and wire mesh.

Turndowns strengthen the edge of the slab

During our final week of construction, we poured the foundation of Rosie’s Home! After two concrete trucks, a lot of hand-smoothing, and a day to cure, we were able to stand on the foundation, remove the formwork, and begin the process of framing the walls. Using our detailed framing plans, we constructed and leveled the North, East, and South walls of the home. In the Fall, the upcoming 3rd-year class will finish the Western wall’s framing and construct the exterior envelope before moving on to the interior.

While we waited for the concrete to set, we spent the afternoon building a new house for Rosie’s dog, Bo, whose house was beginning to fail. We were able to carry it over to the backyard for Bo by the end of the day, just in time, since a big storm blew in shortly after.

I love Rural! Pig Roast 2022!

The semester ended with a bang at the annual Pig Roast festivities. We enjoyed two days of touring current projects and celebrating the completion of several projects. The weekend ended with a graduation ceremony for the 5th-year students and celebration of our community partners.

First, we showed off a gallery of our projects for Woodshop, History, and Studio.

Next, we drove over to site. After some kind words from Rosie and Frankie, we presented our progress on Rosie’s Home to our visitors. The benefits of our post-frame construction were clearly shown when a storm hit suddenly. Thankfully, with our pre-constructed roof, we were able to continue the presentation and celebration as planned.

Looking back on our semester here at Rural Studio, we have come so far since January. We will all miss Newbern dearly, but our team is very excited to see the next semester of students develop the project even further. We can’t wait to return to see Rosie and Frankie enjoying their new home.

Check back here in August to get to know the folks working on Phase 3 of Rosie’s Home!

Tags: pigroast, postframehome, rosieshome, rs3rdyears

Pipe Dreams

April 14, 2022

Work has really ramped up in the past couple weeks! Our chairs are nearing completion, we’ve created more watercolor paintings, and the plumbing for Rosie’s Home has been finished and buried! Scroll down to see more of what we’ve been up to!

Entrenched in Our Work

We’ve spent the last few weeks digging trenches on our site. Through driving rain, the roof kept us dry enough to continue working. After marking out the placement of various fixtures, we were able to complete the plumbing for our wastewater drainage system. Then, we performed a flow test to check the slopes of our buried pipes and ensure that the water would drain properly away from the building to the septic system.

The team checks the batter board string accuracy.

Once the pipes for water and electricity were safely buried and the ground was level, we brought in the Bobcat and spread gravel across the footprint of the building to prepare the ground for the incoming foundation. Next, we used shovels and rakes to spread the gravel evenly. We will level and tamp all of it to final elevation this week for the upcoming slab pour. After the initial leveling, we used some of our excess gravel to repair Rosie’s driveway.

The team used the Bobcat to unload gravel.

Next week, we will be preparing to pour the concrete slab!

That’s History

Our class visited the Jemison Mansion in Tuscaloosa, AL, and the many outbuildings of an 1800s farm in Folsom, AL.

We discussed the details of the Jemison Mansion.

This week, in lieu of a tour, we had a review of all of the sketches and watercolors we have made this semester. This included a watercolor that we recently completed of a house that each student designed. These houses were designed to be as self-sustaining as possible, as well as serving as a beautiful subject for our paintings.

Chair-ish This Moment

All of the teams have been making great progress on their chairs in Woodshop Class. The Zig Zag Chair team has begun assembly. The Alto Stool team has been steam-bending and cutting out their stool tops. Finally, the Folding Chair team has been testing the foldability of their assembly and begun cutting mortise and tenon joints for the feet of their chair.

Tune in for our next blog to see the final results of our chairs and the progress on the slab for Rosie’s Home!

The Stakes are High

March 29, 2022

Things have really gotten rolling with our 3rd-year class! Scroll down to see what we’ve been working on in woodshop, history, and Rosie’s Home.

Mocking It Up

Our main project in woodshop is to create a chair. However, before we could begin recreating our chair precedents, each team was tasked with crafting a mock-up that tested all of the most difficult aspects of their chair’s construction. We learned so much about joints, jigs, lamination, and even steam-bending!

Grant and Sarah display steam-bent chair legs with a thumbs up. — Steam-bent legs for the Alto Stool

Anna displays a mock-up of the Zig Zag Chair with a thumbs up. — Steam-bent legs for the Alto Stool

Our testing phase is coming to a close, but we have learned from both our mistakes and successes and can apply that knowledge to our final chair.

Historical Visits and Tomfoolery

This month, we visited Gaineswood in Demopolis, AL, along with Magnolia Grove and The Oaks (Happel-Stickney Home) in Greensboro, AL. These houses were beautifully constructed and provided opportunities for fun photo ops between sketches.

Students approach the Gainswood House in Demopolis. — Ballroom Dancing

Two students dance in the ballroom of Gainswood House. — Ballroom Dancing

1st-Year Frenzy

The 2021-2022 Foundation Unit students came to visit Rural Studio! We had a great time showing them around Newbern. On Saturday, we helped them build a variety of model stands for their latest project. The stands turned out wonderfully!

That’s the Plan!

Over the past few weeks, we’ve created many iterations of floor plans for Rosie’s Home, gradually improving the design. We also went on site to examine the post-frame construction and discuss the building’s corner details.

Students discuss methods of corner detailing on site.

This week, we finalized our floor plan and slab details and decided on a new elevation scheme. We taped out our floorplan at full scale on the floor of our studio. Next, we staked out the footprint of the building and began setting up our batter boards!

Plan Mock Up to test living space and accessibility sizes

After marking out the floor plan under the roof structure, we brought our clients Rosie and Frank out to show them our progress and present our projections for what the home will look like in the future. It was a great meeting, and we can’t wait to see what they think of the house when it is complete!

Check back in soon to see our progress on the foundation and framing plans!

Tags: batter boards, chair class, history class, post frame home, rs3rdyears, woodshop

Back to the Drawing Board

October 25, 2019

It’s been an eventful week for the 3rd-years! Since Halloween review is fast approaching, they’ve been busy at work getting things ready in their quilting class, on site, and in studio.

For the quilt, each student finished the second iteration of their quilt squares which they arranged as a studio to craft the first iteration of their quilt! Now they know their final quilt top for Ophelia will look a little something like this:

On site, the studio’s tool trailer was moved in (yay!!!), and the team took care of other odds and ends – including cutting down limbs to make room for the trailer under a tree, reorganizing the wood stock pile, and removing the old septic line.

In studio, after drawing hundreds of different variations of Ophelia’s 20K floor plan it was time for the 3rd-years to consolidate their ideas and create a final floor plan! They studied multiple iterations of what could be the final plan and what those plans would look like in interior elevations and in section.

On Friday, the studio broke down into teams to study the final floor plan options. One team worked on drawing the different ceiling and wall/door alignments in elevation and section while the second team taped out a mock-up of the final plan underneath the fabrication pavilion.

The team mocks up the final plan under the fabrication pavilion.

After hundreds of drawings, hours of discussion, and a mock-up or two here and there, the students have finally decided on a final floor plan that they think is going to make an amazing home for Ophelia.

Tags: #auburnarchitecture, #Ophelias20K, 3rdyear, ruralstudio, wareagle

Water Lines and Tool Trailers and Batter Boards, Oh My!

October 18, 2019

It’s now the week after fall break and the 3rd-years are rested up and ready for the next phase of their semester! This week has been all about making sure the students have everything ready for when it’s time to start building.

First, the students had a much-needed conversation about their schedule and budget. They held a pull planning session to start making a schedule for the rest of the semester – will they stick to the schedule? Stay tuned to find out!

Next, the students worked together to get things ready on site by moving all their supplies and the leftover wood from Mrs. Patrick’s Home (last year’s project) to Ophelia’s site.

Over the next couple of days, the students broke down into teams to get the site and their tool trailer ready for when it’s time to build. A few of them focused on locating and shutting off the old water line on site. This team also dug up and capped off the old septic line and removed old tie offs for the trailers previously on site.

Another team worked hard to build the inside of the tool trailer with shelves for all their equipment and individual cubbies for everyone on the team.

The third team measured and cut all the pieces to make batter boards that the 3th-years will use to measure the height of the finished floor of Ophelia’s new home!

All in all, it was a productive week for the 3th-years on site and they are very excited and eager to break ground on Ophelia’s 20K soon! Just look at how excited they are!!!

Tags: #auburnarchitecture, #Ophelias20K, 3rdyear, auburnuniversity, ruralstudio